Why?

There were a few reasons I decided to move to a WordPress blog. The first and foremost was that I felt I needed a more professional, cleaner look. I really like it. I hope you like it too. Since I’m fairly pathetic and lost when it comes to technical stuff, I knew I would need help getting the look and the flexibility I was after in a new website. Choosing a template was an exhaustive, frustrating search. But once I settled on the Standard Theme, there was really no question as to who I would ask to help me–the person whose work I already knew. Peter Pollock was largely responsible for putting together what I consider to be (in my not so unbiased opinion) one of the best author websites on the internet. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. BillyCoffey.com will be featured in a presentation by the PR firm representing Snow Day (Billy’s debut novel) as a shining example of an effective author website.

Peter was able to take my concepts and Billy Coffey’s eloquent words and create a place that I feel truly reflects who Billy is as a writer and as a person. That’s not as easy as it looks.

I’ve asked Peter to explain what he does. If you’re looking to make a move and you’re in need of assistance, he gets my highest recommendation.

Here’s Peter:

@Katdish suggested I write a post for her about why you should host your website with me. Here’s my thoughts:

One question vexes all businesses, from the heady days of starting out, when they believe their product to be unique and irresistible, to the deep dark days of desperately trying to come up with a new marketing strategy for a dying product, the question remains the same: “Why should people buy my product?”

• Why buy Coke not Pepsi
• Why buy a Mac not a PC
• Why buy Ford not Toyota?

In reality, there is generally not much separating different brands. Really, how much difference is there between Coke and Pepsi? A slightly different taste, different sized bubbles and a different colored can – and that’s pretty much all.

The same is very much true of blog hosts. Our various offerings are virtually identical, in reality, and the average person couldn’t see or feel the differences.

So what is the difference?

Why I Started My Business

Back in 2002, I set up a website for my church. It was my first site and my first experience with web hosting – and it wasn’t a good one.

My specifications were:

1. Good service
2. A price our tiny church could afford

The host I found seemed great at first, but a year later a discovered that their customer service was TERRIBLE, just terrible.

It was then that I uttered those fateful words:

“I could do better than this!”

On May 4th 2004 we signed our first customer (who is thankfully still with us) and we’ve been in the business ever since.

Our original mission was to help small churches and charities get their first foot on the website ladder.

My passion was, and still is, to help people get web-connected. I believe the web is such a big part of so many people’s lives that churches and charities simply can’t afford NOT to have a web presence.

Last February, I wrote my first book and started investigating how to get it published. It was then that I fully entered the strange and exciting worlds of writing and blogging and it became apparent to me that here was another area where people desperately need to have a good quality but affordable website. (See Jody Hedlund’s excellent piece on why an online presence is essential for writers).

Through my blog, twitter and Facebook, I met writers and bloggers and began to try to help them build their online presence. I soon realized that most people were being held back by their current blogging platform and the cost of moving to something better.

That’s when the idea for NewBlogHosting.combegan to take shape in my mind. Here was another market that I was passionate about helping and I had the facilities necessary to help them. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together and start designing a service specifically for bloggers.

In short, if you’re looking to start a new blog, either because you want to start your first one or because the one you have needs improving, NewBlogHosting.com is designed to help you.

At just $35 per year, we feel we have the pricing right to balance the need for covering our costs with making the plan affordable to everyone.

We have designers we can recommend and I’m always willing to give a little help here and there to solve problems my clients are having with setting up and adding things to their blogs.

I believe that the difference between us and the competition is that we’re not just in it for the money, we’re in it to help YOU – and we’d love to be given the chance to prove that to you.

Please feel free to visit our site at NewBlogHosting.com or contact me through twitter – and if you sign up with us before the end of June 2010, we’re also giving $15 from each new plan sold to charity.